The Whistleblower Scandal Is More Likely to Take out Joe Biden Than It Is to Hurt Trump

As Bonchie posted yesterday, this whole Ukraine flap has all the makings of yet another media generated faux scandal that will end in nothing. (See As Predicted, that Trump-Ukraine “Whistle-Blower” Story Just Blew Up In Epic Fashion.) Now we’re learning that the alleged whistleblower really isn’t a whistleblower or entitled to any kind of protection because that person never heard the call nor read any transcripts, they had heard about it.

Look at what’s buried in the 22nd paragraph of this CNN update on the whistleblower frenzy…. https://t.co/q5ffnJpjg8 pic.twitter.com/qVGQQ3P7w8

— Joe Borelli (@JoeBorelliNYC) September 21, 2019

The way the story is developing, though, the worst you can say about Trump is that you don’t like what he did. Fine, I think we all have that feeling time and again. The stupidest thing you can say is this or something like it:

Honest Q: Do you think he would have done it if Biden weren’t beating him the polls? Or wasn’t running at all? In other words, do you think Trump cares one whit about corruption in Ukraine or any place else?

— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahDispatch) September 21, 2019

I think that we can all see from the way Goldberg and his fellow Vichyists pushed the Collusion Hoax that they have no issue whatsoever with a presidential campaign using the services of foreign intelligence services to attack a political opponent. In fact, these people were in the forefront of demanding Trump cooperate with the investigation because he should look forward to being exonerated. I can’t understand why they think Joe Biden isn’t chomping at the bit to have his name cleared or why they’re upset.

But some interesting things are happening that indicate that this story poses more of a danger to Joe Biden than to Donald Trump.

First, the story is not a hoax. Hunter Biden is a grift-o-matic and Joe Biden’s protection of his son has been an issue since early in the Obama administration. Here we have a reporter being stonewalled by a State Department spokeswoman (Jen Psaki, right?) over the rather grotesque appearance of a conflict of interest of Hunter Biden getting a lucrative job from Ukrainian oligarchs given the US involvement in the Russia-Ukraine war.

👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻 https://t.co/C5r2rVao64

— Abigail Marone (@abigailmarone) September 21, 2019

The reason he was asking about it is because it was a significant story despite what Biden tries to claim.

Joe Biden has refused to answer questions about the big bucks 💵💵💵 his son received from a major Ukrainian gas company while he was Vice President.

He says "not one single credible outlet" has questions.

That's not true. What is Joe Biden hiding?pic.twitter.com/vPviXUuDGD

— Trump War Room – Text TRUMP to 88022 & get the APP (@TrumpWarRoom) September 21, 2019

Unlike during the Obama administration when Hunter Biden’s propensity for shady deals would have attached to the Biden, personally, and through him to the Obama administration, now there are people inside the Democrat party who want to take Biden out. That’s why you have stories like this which are driving Biden fans crazy.

Why is the @NewYorker doing hit jobs on Biden's son? Because they take their orders from Obama.

Who's the first person quoted? An anonymous Obama aide.

Obama backs Kamala. They want to destroy Biden to throw the race wide open.

So much for loyalty.https://t.co/FtWGnLpN0i

— Emerald Robinson ✝️ (@EmeraldRobinson) September 21, 2019

and this

Here's some of the first "but his emails" coverage of the Trump/Ukraine scandal. Yes, Trump betrayed his country but also Hunter Biden. https://t.co/Tf4yLtRPhi

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) September 21, 2019

The “more with sadness than anger” examinations of how Joe Biden got sucked into questionable acts in order to help his son. And it seems like some major media outlets and CNN might cover the story:

CNN's John King on May 12th of this year: "Hunter Biden worked for a natural gas company in Ukraine, which is totally fair game. Did the vice president’s son use his dad’s influence to make money somewhere in the world? That's is totally fair game." pic.twitter.com/63qZ7tM60I

— Francis Brennan (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@FrancisBrennan) September 20, 2019

Here's @kenvogel of the New York Times saying on MSNBC that he views Joe Biden son's work in Ukraine as "a significant liability for Joe Biden."

"There is a story here," Vogel adds, saying "we're going to continue to, sort of, pull that back." (I'm sure Trump is very grateful!) pic.twitter.com/HSl90pk6Zn

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 20, 2019

Making it sweeter is Joe Biden boasting about telling the Ukrainian government to shut down their investigation of his son or lose all funding.

Biden forced Ukraine to fire a prosecutor who was going to investigate the corrupt oligarch his son Hunter worked for by threatening to withhold $1B. Biden brags about it in this video,

If Trump was talking to #Ukraine about this real abuse
Biden is the one w/ a big problem pic.twitter.com/tGHWH0Up5B

— Jim Hanson (@JimHansonDC) September 20, 2019

Even the Usual Suspects on the left are pulling their chins and clucking that this is worthy:

Not wrong for reporters to want to establish whether there was some underlying misconduct w/Biden in Ukraine.

The problem with "but her emails!" coverage was with proportionality: treated as a campaign-defining scandal when it wasn't (& paled in comparison to Trump scandals).

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) September 21, 2019

The Hunter Biden stuff reminds me of the Clinton Foundation and Wall Street speaking fees. Democrats said allegations of corruption were conspiratorial. But general election voters aren’t stupid. Wealthy pols and their family getting corrupt cash is bad.

— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) September 21, 2019

Stoller is spot on. Trump’s actions are well within his authority as president and Trump’s disregard for protocol is largely baked into the equation. Biden was involved in a garden variety cover up of his son’s apparent corruption. More people understand that story than the attack on Trump. Mind you, I don’t believe for second, that this an diddly squat to do with them wanting to investigate Biden and everything to do with them realizing how weak a candidate Biden is and wanting him out of the race.

https://twitter.com/BuckSexton/status/1175421730862616578

Joe Biden on his Ukraine scandal: “Why's [Trump] on the phone with a foreign leader trying to intimidate [them]?”

Biden in 2016 on what he told Ukraine: “I looked at them and said: ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money’” pic.twitter.com/IjNgweVH67

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) September 21, 2019

In this case, as hard as it is to believe, it is very easy to see Chris Hayes being completely right here